The Price He Paid
by Kohaku-chan
Summary: Wufei ponders how the war has not ended despite Treize’s death and blames himself explains why Wufei joined Mariemaia’s Army. No pairings except mentions of past 5Meiran. Treize is a bad guy.


Archive: Team Rocket and Shinigami Castle, Anime-Zing! WUFEI.ORG. Others please ask first, I'm not likely to say no. Pairings: Past 5+Meiran, mentioned 11+13 Warnings: Unflattering characterization of Treize that some may see as OOC but is how I see him. Spoilers: series spoilers, references to Endless Waltz, Episode Zero Disclaimer: I intend no infringement on copyrights or trademarks, this work is purely for entertainment purposes and no profits are made from this work.  
  
Acknowledgements: Thank you to Duo-chan for beta-ing this for me. =^-^=  
  
Summary: Wufei ponders how the war has not ended despite Treize's death and blames himself; explains why Wufei joined Mariemaia's Army.  
  
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The war was over.  
  
Wufei should have been happy. They'd achieved their goal of ending the tyranist rule over the colonies and gotten rid of OZ, but the events that followed immediately after the war drove home to him that the war hadn't finished yet.  
  
On the urgings of the newly named Vice Foreign Minister Relena Dorlian and the newly elected President, the unified Earth government had disarmed itself, scrapping mobile suits as they declared themselves pacifists and began new relations with the colonies.  
  
White Fang had disbanded with the deaths of Milliardo Peacecraft and Quinze Barton; surprisingly most of the colonist rebels had been from the L3 Cluster. Or maybe it was unsurprising since Quinze originated from that cluster.  
  
It should have been over.  
  
It would have been over.  
  
But the sudden disbanding of the military had cut loose soldiers that had once faithfully served Treize Khushrenada, men and women that had blindly followed him in his twisted vision of peace and unity under complete and total domination.  
  
And Treize had made sure they would continue to do so. They'd find a way to achieve the visions of their fallen leader somehow and it was Wufei's own fault.  
  
Wufei had been the one that killed Treize, it could have just as easily been one of the other Gundam pilots or even Zechs, and it would have had the same effect. The bold and heroic leader of OZ killed by a feared Gundam pilot in a spectacular battle as he fought for his noble dreams of peace through total unification, or at least that's what his loyal followers were made to believe. But it hadn't been one of the other pilots who'd killed Treize, and none of them would have understood the games he was playing, except perhaps Quatre who might have recognized the strategy and deceit in Treize's plans, unfortunately the Sandrock pilot had never encountered Treize personally or in battle.  
  
Perhaps Quatre would have seen it sooner than Wufei had, the blonde pilot saw so much after all, he had seen from the beginning that they should fight together as a group and it wasn't until near the end when Wufei had realized the same thing. Perhaps if Wufei had done so sooner, the events of the last battle might have been avoided. Perhaps the war would have been over quicker. Perhaps he might have teamed up with Milliardo when the blonde prince had approached him and the man would not have become involved with White Fang or tried blowing up the Earth. Perhaps Wufei's colony would not have self-destructed.  
  
Perhaps. There were too many of them for Wufei's liking, too many possibilities surrounding his choice to fight by himself.  
  
His mission had been to defeat Treize Khushrenada and the other OZ leaders, causing OZ to collapse and free the colonies; he and the rest of the Gundam pilots had done that. His goal though had been to kill Treize and avenge the death of his wife who had died as a result of an attack on his colony. The Organization of Zodiac's aim in that attack had been to purge the dying colony of life and scrap it, at the orders of its leader Treize Khushrenada. The attack had been thwarted and the colonists spared, but Meiran had died as a result of injuries taken protecting Wufei from an attack by an OZ suit. She had died before they could build a life together as husband and wife, before they had accepted each other, and it was because of Khushrenada.  
  
Wufei had vowed to avenge her death and in that he had failed. Twice. The first time had been when he'd attacked Treize's ship and challenged the man to a duel to the death. His plan was to avenge Meiran or die trying. He had lost the duel but the nobleman that had been manipulating the Gundam pilots like pawns had seen further use for Wufei, Treize had spared his life and denied him the honor Wufei would have found in death.  
  
Treize had known it. The man was a born aristocrat; he'd known well the concepts of chivalry, honor and nobility. He had used chivalry to disguise his manipulations, nobility to charade his sharp cunning and played with honor like a toy, but he'd had none of it. The man had used Zechs Merquise to further his own ends then sent him to meet his death when he could no longer use him. He'd manipulated the Gundam pilots like a puppet master into killing the Alliance peace leaders in order to pave the way for himself.  
  
Wufei had seen what Treize had done to the one person who was closest to him. It was obvious that Lady Une was in love with Treize and he'd pulled her every which way. Trying to please him, her devotion to Treize had caused her severe psychological problems that she fortunately seemed to have resolved before the war ended. Otherwise, Wufei knew she wouldn't have withdrawn OZ's forces after Treize died, she would have instead continued the battle in an attempt to avenge him. She probably would have convinced herself it was what he would have wanted.  
  
Wufei hated Mobile Dolls, the possibility of losing his life in battle to a brainless machine was an anathema to him, and they were just empty battles with nothing lost or gained. Treize had objected to the use of Mobile Dolls, not because they because they were soulless machines that had no understanding or regard of human life, but because losing Mobile Dolls in a battle against the Gundam pilots didn't have half the impact on his followers as it did if the losses were their own compatriots, spurring them on to fight harder. It was something that angered Wufei almost more than anything, Treize's claim that every soldier who died for him and gave his or her life for him was important to him. They were, but not because he regretted the loss of their lives, but because he could use it to rally support behind him by convincing his soldiers that their sacrifices meant something, that their deaths were worth the outcome he planned. So many lives tossed away because of the machinations of one man.  
  
So Wufei had killed Treize and in doing so, he'd turned the man into a martyr for his cause and because of it Wufei had won the battle but the war that should have been over, that everyone thought was over, was not, and Treize was winning.  
  
Earth and the colonies had learned nothing from this war and had disarmed themselves, leaving thousands of soldiers adrift, soldiers that were looking for a battle. They would gather somewhere to continue the war that hadn't yet ended.  
  
Losing Meiran had shown Wufei that the total pacifism he'd preached to her was not possible. People unwilling to fight to protect that which they cherished would fall at the first strike from people who needed a reason to stop fighting.  
  
Wufei sighed; closing the e-mail that Quatre had sent him. It was a request that he was sure had been sent to the others as well, but Wufei would not be fulfilling it, not until the war was over. Quatre's plan of sending the Gundams into the sun was not a bad plan, had the war been over, Wufei would be sending Altron to him as soon as he could. After all if the war was over there was no more need for Gundams and their continued existence would only cause unneeded tension. But Quatre didn't know what Wufei did, and Wufei wasn't going to tell him. It was his mistake to fix, not theirs.  
  
Wufei would go where the soldiers gathered and he would take Altron with him. He would make sure that Earth learned the lesson this time and Treize was finally defeated. He would return to the battlefield with the other Gundam pilots once more but it would be as their enemy and not their ally, for he knew they would rise to meet the new threat. It was a high price to pay, making himself their enemy, something that could get him killed, and Wufei wished it wasn't necessary, but he would gladly pay with his life if it meant a true and lasting peace. 


End file.
